"Hey, Junie? Do you mind if I ask you something?"

Juniper stops rolling up her sleeping bag and turns to Athena. "That's fine. What is it?"

"Well..." The 3 drops her voice before shooting me a look. "Apollo! Can't you tell we're trying to discuss some secrets, girl to girl?"

"Wh-wha—Okay?" I back up towards the mouth of the cave. Simon took Hugh to scout some of the tunnel with him—not too much of it, of course—while Klavier and Trucy are a bit farther down the mountain trying to hunt down a rabbit, although I feel like at least one of them might prefer to keep it in a hat.

"Ooh, did I hear something about discussing secrets?" Robin peeks over my shoulder. "Wonder what it is!"

I sweat. "Apparently you're not supposed to find out."

Robin covers her mouth with splayed fingers. "But Juniper and I are best friends! She can trust me with all of her secrets, right?"

Putting aside the feeling that she may not be the best at keeping secrets, I frown a little. "And I suppose she knows all of your secrets?" I press a finger to my forehead. "I can think of one that you only spilled not too long ago."

She draws her hands backs, gasping. "But I—!" Only a moment passes before she's shouting again. "ALL RIGHT! I understand now! Friends just have to keep secrets sometimes!"

For some reason, I can feel my bracelet clamping down on my wrist. What could that be in response to? I'm only paying any attention to Robin, so...

"Robin?" I rub my wrist until the bracelet is back to normal. "Could you repeat that? Maybe with a little less volume."

"Sure thing, man!" She settles down a bit, stretching her arms down behind her back. "I said, all right! I understand now! Friends just have to keep S·E·C·R·E·T·S—!"

"Gotcha!"

There—right when she said that, her hands tensed in a strange way. The entire left hand, and the index finger of the right. But what could I link that to? I can't think of any way this could relate to her big secret, or to any sort of weapon. If I do the same sort of thing with my hands...

"Six?" I don't realize I say it out loud until it's too late to stop myself.

Robin squeezes her arm above the elbow. "Six? Six what, man?"

I frown. "You tell me. For some reason, when you thought about friends keeping secrets from each other, you remembered something about the number six."

She avoids my gaze. "I-I don't know what you're talking about."

"Did something happen on Day 6?" I fold my arms.

"Day S-I-X? No way. We were just chilling out, and then heading for the summit after that announcement. Nothing to keep secret."

"How about District 6?" I try. "Something to do with Aristotle, or—" what was her name?—"Constance?"

"N-n-n... No!" She suddenly puts her hand to her forehead and, with a fluid motion, swoons and falls to the ground. That was way too slow and gentle for her to have actually fallen unconscious.

"Robin." I put my fists down. "Tell me what happened with the District 6 tributes. I won't disclose it to Hugh or Juniper if you don't want me to."

She plays dead for a moment longer before rising and grabbing her upper arm again. "You promise? Like... a promise between men?"

Uh... Seeing as you're not a man, it's not quite like that. But you have to keep the audience fooled, I guess.

"Sure. A promise between men."

I finally loosen my focus and watch her more casually. "So, what's so secret about the tributes from District 6?"

"It's not both of them, just Constance. She was killed in the bloodbath, you know?" She sniffles. "It was awful. Blood everywhere."

"That does sound pretty bad. Who was responsible?"

She grabs at her arm again. "That's the thing. I... It was..." With another dramatic motion, she faints away.

"Robin! I know you're conscious!"

Pouting, she gets up and rubs under her eyes. "I don't know who it was! But... But it had to have been one of us three!"

Robin, Juniper, or Hugh? One of them? I can't imagine Juniper killing someone, let alone so early. The others... I don't know them too well, but I doubt they would kill for glory, either. It would be a real problem for the alliance if they did, though.

I shut my eyes in thought. "What do you mean, 'had to have been'?"

"We were the only ones close enough. Constance was already collapsed just a few moments in, and the awl that had dealt the fatal wound, well, it had been right by her, too."

I dwell on this for a moment before squatting down and running a finger over the ground. It's just dusty enough.

"Okay. Let's say this is the circle of starting plates. Where were you three and Constance, and anyone else nearby?"

She kneels down and traces a few small but perfect circles along the curve I drew. "I was the farthest over this way." She puts an R in the leftmost circle. "I think the 1 girl was past me, but she never came this way. I kept an eye on her, because she was dangerous, you know." She rubs under her eyes until I attempt a few words of sympathy.

"That must have been pretty scary. So, you couldn't see Constance's murder because you were preoccupied with the Career to your left?"

"Mmm-hmm." She goes on to draw a J, C, H, and A in the next circles, from left to right.

"Who's A? Aristotle?"

She nods. "I don't know who was past him, or the scary lady."

"And Hugh is sure that Aristotle didn't cross him?"

She grips her arm. "Hugh hasn't really talked about the bloodbath. But Aristotle didn't do it, I know for a F-A-C-T. Anyway, that's how the starting plates were. So we were really the only ones close enough."

"Why do you keep saying 'we'?" I press my index finger to my forehead, my other hand resting in the crook of my arm. "You didn't do it, did you?"

"No way!" she responds in her usual shouting pose before rubbing her arm again. "But there's no way it was Juniper. And no way it was Hugh."

I slouch. "So you're including yourself as a suspect just because the others don't make sense? Don't you remember whether or not you did it?"

"I would totally remember something like that." She lets out a breath before frowning down at her schematic.

I still haven't gotten a straight answer out of her...

"But you thought of all of this when you brought up keeping secrets from each other, right?" I say. "So who's keeping what secret?"

"I mean... We've all told each other we haven't killed anyone, but someone must have been hiding something given the situation, but... AAAGH!" She hurls her water bottle to the ground, where it bounces a little and rolls to her feet. I wonder how much abuse that thing has taken so far. "There's no way, man! My friends wouldn't do that to an innocent tribute!"

"But you're also sure it wasn't—"

I'm distracted by a flash of light in the tunnel. Athena and Juniper shut their own mouths as a beam of light sweeps out toward us. I can't hear the footsteps—are all of the tunnels that way?—but the clanking of chains is loud enough. Looks like the boys are back.

And with that, I guess there's no more discussing "a secret between men." Not for now, at least.

"Herr Blackquill! Anything of interest back there?"

Simon turns off the flashlight before coming to a stop at the edge of the sunlight. "Very little of interest aside from the stream of sorts."

"Of sorts?" Athena rests her hands on her hips.

"It was more of a sorry waterfall." Hugh shifts his weapon case with a bump of the shoulder. "About as slow as a mouth-breather when compared to bona-fide geniuses." He adjusts his glasses with a smirk. "None in particular, of course."

"How slow are we talking?" I fold my arms. "How long to fill up a water bottle?"

Simon presents his spare bottle, which has enough water to cover the bottom and not much more. "This came after a period of waiting—a man who hasn't spent long years in the clink beyond the reach of the sun would likely call it substantial."

Trucy looks up, mouth scrunched to one side. "So, most of the time you were gone? That's really not much water for that..."

"Needless to say, it isn't a splendid source for such a large alliance," Hugh says.

Juniper frowns. "So we keep moving?"

"So it appears." Klavier smiles at her. "But don't fret about it. If you tire, I'll be happy enough to carry you myself."

Carry her? You can barely climb by yourself with all your wobbling. She's holding out a lot better than you, honestly.

"Now that I think about it, I haven't heard you cough at all since we've been here," I tell her with a smile. "Feeling better?"

She smiles back. "Yes! The air's so much clearer out here than in the Capitol. It's just like home." She clasps her hands together. "Well, where I live, at least. I can't say the city is that great in District 11, either."

"Well, that's good." I glance at the ground. "Need any help packing up your bedroll?" It's the last one out by now. Once it's finished, we can go.

"Oh, um..." She stutters for a moment before Athena elbows her. "I am having a little trouble rolling it tightly enough to fit in the bag."

"Yeah." I step over and lower myself to get to the sleeping bag. "They don't seem very well-designed for that."

We manage to cram it in the bag somehow, and then we're off again. There was a little action yesterday, right? Enough for us to avoid trouble if we don't go looking for it? Although I feel like it always finds me, anyway...

Some fat burritos were sent for lunch, even though we still have some rabbit and another snake. I guess Klavier dropping his food so much yesterday was a ploy to get his brother to send in better food. Kind of childish, if you ask me. I won't complain about what I'm getting out of it, though. As long as this isn't wasting funds we're going to need later, I'm fine with it.

"Hey, Apollo." Athena plops herself down next to me, glancing at Trucy since she's the closest. "Can we talk about something, in private?"

"Huh? Sure." I chew up the rest of my lunch and follow her over a few meters.

She lets out a breath, scanning our group of allies. Simon is staring at us, but he's just trying to keep an eye on Athena. As long as he's not listening too intently, we shouldn't have a problem. I don't appreciate the glare much, though.

"You've been allied with Klavier for a while, right?" she starts.

And here I thought she was going to explain her reaction to that knife... Although I guess I didn't actually tell her I saw anything. And I didn't, really. I probably just misread her somehow.

"Since before we ran into you and Simon, at least. We didn't speak much before the Games started, though."

She nods. "All right. You might still have some idea." Folding her arms loosely, she taps her earring enough to make it swing at a steady pace. "For some reason, there has been more and more panic in his voice. Do you know why?"

I frown. "Panic? Are you sure?"

"I know panic when I hear it, Apollo."

"R-right. Well..." I stare at the clouds. "The Games are charging ahead. He could just be worried about his chances, right? Even a guy like him has to be uncertain about winning from time to time. We all are."

She looks down, Widget turning blue. "We really are. It's... hard to listen to any of us talk here. Even if it's not about anything threatening, we're all afraid. Honestly, it's probably not a good idea for me to be around so many people like this." She fists her hands. "But I'll pull through, don't worry!"

"I know you will. You're fine." I shut my eyes. "So, Klavier sounds more afraid than the rest of us do?"

"Not so much at first." She frowns, hands on her hips. "I mean, I can't be too worried just because my allies are scared. I'll do what I can to help, but it's perfectly normal. I'm only concerned about him because he's getting worse and worse. And as hard as he tries to hide it, I don't think I'll be able to get the cause out of him without using a Mood Matrix." She squints at the sky pointedly. "I could use my glove, you know!"

A moment of nothing but quiet conversation off where the others are passes before she sighs and looks back at me. "I guess that's not an option."

"It's one glove! Stingy jerks!"

She slumps. "Widget, no. I, uh, didn't mean that," she informs the sky.

I snort and look over at the others. Simon is still the only one in clear view, although I think I can make out Klavier's light hair over one of the rocks.

"Maybe it's his head injury. He's been having some balance issues, and a lot of pain. He could be afraid he'll run out of painkillers. That would explain it, right?"

"Yeah... No, wait! He's rich, remember? I'm sure he could afford more if he needed them."

I flinch back. "Then why did you give them to him in the first place?"

"What, I'm not allowed to be nice to rich people?!" she snarls, fists clenched and a little too close to my head. "And the rest of you could have used them, too!"

"Okay, okay! I was just asking."

"Right..." Sighing, she taps at her earring. "I guess you could be right. Maybe he's scared of the pain continuing to get worse, with or without medicine. I don't know what else it could be."

"Me, either. If it's that serious, he can tell us himself. Otherwise, it's hard to help."

She nods. "You can't make any progress in therapy if you're not willing to build a trusting relationship with your therapist." Her gaze falls as she grips her arm. "I don't know if he doesn't trust us, or if he's trying to stay strong, but I don't think he's going to open up."

"Probably not." I slowly pop my knuckles, watching Taka fly back from his own meal. After a minute, I turn to Athena. "Ready to go back, then? They're probably almost finished."

"A-actually, Juniper..." Her ponytail nearly slaps me as she shakes her head. "Never mind. We can talk about that later. Allons-y!" She gets up abruptly, tugging on my arm until I'm standing with her, and nearly drags me back to the rest of the alliance.